Personal communications systems products such as Second Generation Cordless Telephone (CT-2) employ a large number of base stations in order to provide a wide area of service coverage. In the past, the antennas for these base stations have typically comprised of either internal or external dipole antennas. For the purposes of down sizing the base station and for ergonomic reasons the antenna has been incorporated into the base station housing using an antenna. By enclosing the antenna within the housing a problem arises with the effect of the electric fields generated from the metallic shields that cover the circuit boards within the housing. The close proximity of the antenna to the metallic shields causes distortion of the antenna radiation pattern. Such distortion is typically reduced by moving the radiating elements of the antenna away from the metallic surface but due to the physical constraints of the housing this option is not available. There is a need for an optimum antenna design that will fit in a confined space and not be greatly affected by the metallic shields while ensuring that the antenna is easy to manufacture and cost efficient.